


In Medias Res

by ohhappydagger (thatsagoodjoke)



Series: Things Fall Apart [1]
Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: M/M, mama!verse, only kind of though
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-20
Updated: 2016-04-23
Packaged: 2018-06-03 09:58:55
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,894
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6606559
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thatsagoodjoke/pseuds/ohhappydagger
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tao is in pieces.<br/>Luhan knows things; Yixing knows more.<br/>Jongin knows nothing at all.</p><p> </p><p>...now with a second chapter.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Has it been years or days?

**Author's Note:**

> I actually started this a while ago, and I recently picked it back up with a vengeance. This part has been written for quite sometime, and has only been lightly edited.
> 
> It serves as a prologue of sorts to a bigger series that I'm working on...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> chapter title comes from "Made of Death" which is actually a Homestuck fansong by PhemieC...lololololol

Jongin still has nightmares about it.

He still remembers the way it felt, when Tao literally turned to sand and slipped through his fingers.

 

Luhan presents him with an hour glass pendant; the sand inside is red, like Tao. Jongin almost punches him in the jaw, but he remembers that Luhan never does anything without calculation and purpose. "This is how you're going to find him." Luhan says, toen clipped. "This is how you're going to put him back together." Jongin wants to ask how it's supposed to work because he doesn't know, but Luhan is walking off as quickly as he had appeared just like he always does. Damn Psychic.

Instinct tells Jongin that Yixing will fill in the holes in Luhan's instructions, but Jongin hates going to the elder for anything but a good time. For being a cosmic healer, Yixing sure likes to self medicate. Last time he had gone to Yixing for advice, the other was tripping dick, up to his hair line in LSD, and while Jongin had ultimately taken his advice, the entire experience had left a bad taste in his mouth. Yixing's sense of self-preservation had always been pretty terrible, but it's been down right abysmal since Kris. They don't really talk about that though.

When Jongin knocks on Yixing's door, it takes a while before someone answers, and even when the door does open, it's Chanyeol that greets him. "Where's Yixing?" Jongin demands. He doesn't have time for Chanyeol or his antics; he doesn't have time for whatever Chanyeol and Yixing have gotten up to together. 

"Weren't you raised right?" An ironic question coming from someone who just answered the door of an apartment he doesn't live in, not wearing a shirt. "Can I even get a fucking hello?"

Jongin grits his teeth. "This is important, Chanyeol. I _need_ Yixing."

"Well he's asleep so..." Chanyeol's beginning to get fed, but Jongin's beat him there by a mile.

"Wake him up" Jongin's impatience is palpable, and it takes everything in him not to teleport into Yixing's bedroom. "I really need his help; I don't think this can wait."

"You don't think it can wait, or it _can't_ wait?" Jongin wants to think Chanyeol is being difficult, but he knows he's looking out for Yixing. 

"It's about Tao." He watches the minute narrow of Chanyeol's eye, the slight tense of his mouth. He's about to start yelling, so Jongin stops him.

"Yo, Yixing!" Chanyeol slaps a hand across his mouth.

"Damn it, Jongin, shut up!" Chanyeol takes him by the arm and drags him into Yixing's living room. "Wait here."

Chanyeol disappears back into Yixing's bedroom, and Jongin hears faint whispers and frustrated groans. A quiet _"_ What _does Jongin want?"_ Chanyeol reappears several minutes later with Yixing in tow, looking worse for wear. The elder shoots Jongin a tired glare. He clearly hasn't slept in days. "Why am I awake Jongin?" Yixing asks with a sigh. "Why are you here?"

"Luhan left me this." He fishes the hour glass pendant out of his pocket. "He said I could use it to put Tao back together."

Yixing takes the pendant from Jongin and inspects it. "So why aren't you doing that?"

"I don't know how." Jongin admits quietly. "He didn't tell me how."

"It's probably the power of love or some faggot shit like that." Chanyeol says, throwing himself across Yixing's couch. "Let your heart lead you to his pieces." Chanyeol waves his hands around, voice taking on an overdramatic pitch. Yixing laughs at him.

"If this idiot could figure it out, why couldn't you?" Jongin stands there gaping at him stupidly. "Let the sand tell you where you need to go, then bring what you find back to me; I'll help you put him back together. Now get the fuck out."

Jongin disappears just like that.

 

Jongin sits in his bed, just staring at the pendant in his palm. Yixing said to let the sand tell him where to go. He closes his hand tight around it, bows his head, and concentrates. 'Where's Tao? Take me to Tao.' There's a the tell-tale whoosh of jumping through space, and he all he hears is the soft howl of wind.

He looks up, spinning wildly. He's in a field that stretches into forever in every direction. He has no clue where he is. "Hey!" A familiar voice comes from behind him. "What are you doing here?"

He whips around, and Tao is staring back at him.


	2. Or has it been a breath?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Originally this was going to be part of another fic in this series, but I felt that it worked better attatched to this.
> 
> chapter title comes from "Made of Time" which is actually a Homestuck fansong by PhemieC...lololololol

_"What are you doing here?"_

Jongin and Tao are staring back at each other, but Tao doesn't look like he's happy to see the younger boy. Tao tries to tell him something, but his voice is carried away.

_"Jongin, you can't be here._

He disappears in a passing plume of dust, and Jongin mentally berates himself for entertaining, even a moment, that finding Tao would be easy. He begins to walk in the direction he had seen Tao, deciding that this place has to have a boundary. It's a finite space, a pocket in reality. It can't go on forever. _It can't._

 

It can. 

He's been walking for what feels like an eternity, and as he's gone forward nothing has changed. The sun hasn't moved; the horizon hadn't shifted. It was like he was walking in place. He wasn't even making a trail in the grass he was walking through. Jongin heaves a frustraded sigh, throwing his head towards the sky. "Send me a sign," he cries upward. "Anyone, any _thing._ Send me _something._ " He flops back into the grass and just lays for a moment, eyes closed.

There's a beat, and then a rustle. Then, something is standing in his light. "You know, I'm pretty sure you're wasting time."

Jongin's eyes snap open, and standing above him, all broad sholders and rediculous white blond hair, is Sehun. He sits up quickly, jumps to his feet. "How real are you!?" He asks frantically. 

Sehun shrugs. "I'm as real as the rest of this place."

 _Meaning not at all._ Jongin's mind supplies. He looks around, and he realizes that the landscape has changed with Sehun's arrival. The grass had gotten shorter, and the wind had calmed considerably. "Have you seen Tao?"

"No. I've only seen you." Sehun simply stands there, mouth tight, body tense. "You're not even supposed to be here." He says suddenly. 

"Tao brought me here." Jongin defends, Sehun's shoulders raise.

"You followed Tao here." Sehun corrects him sharply. "You're not supposed to be here."

A chill shoots through Jongin, and something feels...not right. Sehun's mouth is down turned; his eyes ar burning with something dark. "You're not supposed to be here!" He screams this time. 

_"You're not supposed to be here!"_ The world stretches, putting yards between Sehun and Jongin, the wind goes from calm to violent. Jongin can still hear the younger screaming, repeating the same the words over and over agian. 

_You're not supposed to be here._

The wind is slicing at Jongin's arms, and he doesn't know what to do. Sehun is in his way, being a thorn in his side, and it's getting frustrating. The screaming is unintelligible, cut apart in the howling of the wind. Jongin isn't sure which way is up. It's a clusterfuck, and he's is _wasting time._

He tries to teleport to get closer to Sehun, but the wind catches him in the air and slams him into the ground, knocks the breath out of him. He gets blown back even farther than he was before, and he feels like he's been kicked square in the solar plexus. He imagines he'll die like this, breathless, caught in the throes of Sehun's rage. Something has got to change, so he gets to his feet again. It takes everything in him not to be blown completely away. 

There's a break in the clouds in the from of a particularly strong gust of wind. It throws Jongin forward, sending him tumbling closer to Sehun. He decides that prostrate on the ground is the best way to be; at least like this the wind couldn't get underneath him. Breathless and on his back, Jongin feels powerless. He's still not close enough to be heard, but he can make out what Sehun is screaming again. "You followed him here, like you follow him everywhere!" Is he crying? "He fucking left you, and you're still following him!"

It strikes Jongin as odd, the fact that the younger would say something like that. 

"All I ever wanted was for you to notice me!" He's not just crying; he's hysterical. "God! I'm right here and you're still fucking _following him!"_

Jongin feels a thump more than hears it, and then the wind dies. The howling is replaced with quiet sobs. Jongin rolls on his side, and all of his aches and pains hit him at once. He gets to his feet, and he makes his way towards Sehun. What a pitiful sight he is. 

"Sehun." Jongin stands over him. "Sehun, look at me."

Sehun's head tips slowly towards him; he's still crying. The darkness in his eyes is gone replaced with empty resignation. "I love you so much." He whispers.

Jongin heaves a sigh. That doesn't make since. Not to him. He doesn't understand. 

Sehun doesn't love him. 

Sehun _can't_ love him. 

_That's not what fate has planned._

"Sehun." He says finally. "I can't love you; not the way you want me to."

"Can't or _won't?"_ Sehun asks quietly. 

Jongin doesn't answer. Fate dictated that he was destined to be with Tao; it was written in the stars. At least, that's what Tao had always insisted. Jongin couldn't see fate, didn't know it. Tao was his window, and he had always been transparent about it. Not like Luhan, who spoke in riddles and only answered questions in mazes and curves. 

"Jongin." Sehun stands. "Answer me."

He wants to, but he can't find his voice. He can't tell Sehun that the universe is against him. He can only stare at the younger and will him to understand. 

"I see." Sehun looks away. "It's a fruitless battle I'm fighting. Fine then." He reaches into his pocket and pulls out something clutched in his fist. 

He takes Jongin's wrist, and presses what ever is in his fist into the elders hand. "I'm sorry." Sehun whispers, nearly silent, and he disappears, leaving what he had in his palm behind. Jongin calls his name once, twice, but he's gone. He looks down at his hand and he sees that Sehun handed an earring. 

_Tao's earring._

"Hey." Jongin looks up, and Tao is standing in Sehun's place. "What was that all about?"

"Nothing. Just a misunderstanding." Jongin answers, and Tao smiles at him. 

"I think it's time we went home, yeah?" Tao puts his hand in Jongin's, over the earring that Sehun had given him. 

"Yeah." Jongin nods, and clutches Tao's hand. "Let's go home." He closes his eyes and feels a familiar _whoosh._

 

When Jongin opens his eyes again, he's standing in the middle of his room. Nothing has changed. Time hasn't moved. Everything's the same, even him. He doesn't hurt anymore; he doesn't feel like he's been thrown around like a rag doll. 

The only thing that's different is the earring in his palm.

He's got one more piece of Tao that he had before.


End file.
